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Saturday, 6 July 2013

Sky!

6 July 2013

It is a bit hard not to focus first and
foremost on the overwhelming victory of Froome, Porte and Sky.
Almost like yesterday with Cannondale, Sky had a plan, everyone knew
the plan, and no one could do anything about it. Although Movistar
had a plan too and it worked on everyone but Sky. The question on
many minds is what can any team do to prevent FroomeSky from winning,
or even being one two at the end. The only response seems to be to
attack earlier with more guys. This will be excellent for us
spectators. No one really knows what will happen on the first
mountain stage, ever. Sky was fine, perfect. BMC was not so good,
Evans and especially Tejay van Garderen losing massive time.
Probably Tejay will not the winner of the best young rider jersey (I
predicted he would). Movistar seemed to come off the best, Valverde
seemed never to be in difficulty, just a bit slower than Sky. And he
still has Quintana to work for him once the young lad gets a grip on
his first Tour. In short, the Tour is not over, but it sometimes
looks like it. Maybe the next two weeks will still have some
surprises, and perhaps some interest will arise in the KOM
competition. I am still keen to see what happens.

What else can we notice about this
stage, given that it was the first big stage and we have two weeks to
go. First, for me anyway, is the performance of Valverde and
Quintana. Admittedly Quintana went a bit early and got a bit wasted,
but he looked really good, and will no doubt find a rhythm in his
time. It IS his first Tour. Valverde never look hard pressed, just
not as fast. And with Valverde and Quintana both being quite
explosive, they may generate a bit of interest before the end of the
Tour. A few other riders did rather well, given that they all lost.
Bauke Mollema was expected to do quite well, as many suspected
Gesink was never going to succeed. And Mollema has a teammate who is
quite well known, Laurent Ten Dam. Ten Dam always was a good rider,
but very unlikely to be in the top ten. Perhaps those two, acting in
a coherent way, might cause some trouble (maybe Gesink will have a
good day). Contador has good helpers, Kreuziger and Rogers being
excellent, so he won't lie down and give up. Alberto should not have
such a bad day again. Then there is Valverde and Quintana, who make
a formidable duo. In my eyes, Valverde did not look very stressed
today, just a bit slower. Evans and Tejay who are free to do
whatever they can, since they won't win after the results of this
stage. Nieve and Anton (Euskatel) have some degree of
respectability, and might do something clever.

No one is ever going to give Sky the
least bit of help, ever. They are universally respected, but they
are also universally disliked. Who would help them and why? So we
can hope that some kind of alliance might form here or there to cause
some trouble. Although these alliances seldom work. MAYBE a Spanish
one? Also, we have the possibility that those who have lost many
minutes on this stage might feel a bit better and attack from afar,
perhaps succeeding (Evans and van Garderen, for example). I know I
am stretching things, but I really don't like to think the GC is
settled after the first mountain stage, even if that is a strong
possibility and what many commentators say. Oh yes, there could be
accidents or illness, but when I talk like that I don't feel good and
am getting desperate.

Hmmm. Bit hard to find much to say. A
mention of Richie Porte is in order. He rode totally for Froome, and
when he attacked on the last climb, the riders simply fell away,
nobody could keep up with him, even when he was in front and everyone
was following. Froome said he was going to attack, Porte let him go,
cruised along with the others for a bit, a decent and respectable
interval, and then he himself dropped them all. I have a feeling
that if Porte cares about winning the Tour, he is going to have to
find another team. Since the two are pals, and Sky allows Porte to
win other Tours, then perhaps if they pay him enough he will stay.
Which reminds me that there seems to be very little place for Wiggo,
unless he gains some weight and rides the classics that Froome and
Porte don't care about.

We still don't know who is actually
keen to win the KOM. We have a perfectly predictable situation where
Froome is tied with Rolland. But Rolland actually cares about the
jersey and tries to make the moves to gain the points. Froome just
happens to BE the best climber, especially at the end. So he might
win that jersey without even trying. If some rider wants to beat him
they will have to accumulate enough points on a long attack in at
least one stage, maybe two. We don't know who cares about that yet.
But tomorrow is a great stage for a long attack to pick up points for
the KOM jersey. We shall see who makes the move. I am looking for
Kessiakoff.

A short mention of Bardet, Kennaugh and
Kwiatkowski as young riders who did a very respectable job today.
None will win the Tour, in fact, none will win the young rider's
jersey. But they were still noteworthy if you look at the results.
For those new to this blog, I assume you can look up the results in
another window.

Really, honestly, there is not much
more to say. What a demonstration of team unity and power!

About Me

I have been writing and corresponding about the Tour each July for eighteen years. The Tour is a bit of a passion, but riding a bike is what I do all the year around. My club has a site http://www.cyclo-club-bedarieux.com/guppy/